sword_chocobro | A Nice Shaded Clearing in the Preserve; Late Monday Afternoon [08/21].

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A Nice Shaded Clearing in the Preserve; Late Monday Afternoon [08/21].

Sure, the weather was insisting yet again on being hot and humid, but Nell and Gladio had decided they were going to have a picnic that day, and so a picnic they would still have! Maybe it would start to cool down as they headed into evening, anyway, and besides, Gladio was never that bothered by hot weather, anyway.

Even with a shirt on.

So when Nell was finished with work, he swung by to pick her up so they could get things for the picnic together and head out. He knew the preserve very well at this point (best to avoid the woods on the other end of the island for now, really), so he felt he knew a good spot that would be cool and comfortable, with just enough shade from the surrounding trees and close enough to the shore to maybe sometimes get a little bit of a refreshing sea breeze coming off of the ocean.

But, of course, a second opinion on the matter was vital.

"Think this'll work?" he asked, turning to his companion in this particular excursion, with all the confidence that she'd approve because, well...he knew how to pick a good spot.

[[ for she who was egregiously modded for lovely date tiems~ ]]

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Nell had actually been about to suggest this very spot. "I think it's perfect," she said with a smile. "Good shade, but still some sun, and a nice little breeze."

It might have been hot and humid still, but Nell had definitely worked all day outside in worse weather and a picnic was a definite treat. And even if it had been terrible she still would have been happy because of the company.

So yes, a quiet little secluded spot to sit and enjoy time with Gladio was wonderful. Bonus that he actually understood being in the woods from his camping experience and knew how to pick a good site.

She set out her old pink blanket and settled herself on it. "What a lovely spot for a picnic."

And Gladio set down everything he had all but insisted on carrying (he may have also offered/threatened to carry Nell herself as well) to settle in beside her, leaning back a little with his hands behind him, long legs stretched out before him, and his face turned appreciatively up toward the trees and the gaps of sky overhead.

"Glad you approve," he said, and he meant it, because, well, when it came to Nell and nature, that kind of approval went a long way. "And I like that it's a little bit of hike, too, make you really work up an appetite."

And speaking of which....he turned his grin over to Nell. "So what've we go?"

Nell was still chuckling a little bit about Gladio saying that he'd just carry her as well. One day she might take him up on that, because what little she remembered of the other time he'd carried her made her think it would be a marvelous experience.

She knelt up to start unpacking what she'd brought. "No Cup Noodle, I'm afraid. We'll have to save that for a cooler day when we can start a fire." And there she had to pause and smile for a moment thinking about sitting with Gladio on a cool evening in front of a fire.

"Still, I think you'll enjoy this." She pulled out a variety of sandwiches, a container of freshly cut up fruit salad, some fried chicken and a pasta salad made with ramen noodles - for a bit of the Cup Noodle experience.

Edited 2023-08-21 11:56 (UTC)

It should be noted Gladio was also very excellent for piggy-back rides.

"There's a lot of things we can do with a good campfire," Gladio agreed, with a grin and a particular spark of eagerness in his eyes for all the good fall camping weather they'd probably have ahead of them. He might have to spend a week or two just out here with a tent again, just for the hell of it. "But this all looks great, too."

He especially appreciated the excellent nod to his precious Cup Noodles^TM, and, of course, hadn't completely left all the hard work to Nell, as he'd also brought some very fancy lemonade and some cookies that Ignis had insisted upon the moment he caught wind of these plans.

He might just be able to convince her to join him for part of his camping outing.

Nell got herself a piece of the fried chicken and some of both salads before leaning back against a tree. "You wouldn't think fried chicken would taste so good when is not piping hot, but it really does." She smiled over at him. "Such a great way to end my day."

"S'kinda like leftover pizza," Gladio mused, who figured he had two hands, might as well have a sandwich for each of them, but since that left him without a hand for any chicken, he'd better start making quick work of freeing one up. "Obviously, it's great warmed up again, but there's just something about a cold pizza breakfast the next morning..."

Then again, this was a man who was perfectly fine existing on jerky, rations, and instant noodles. He was not a terribly picky man when he came to his diet.

"How was it, by the way?" he asked, departing from his musings about food past to fully enjoy the food and company present, and looking over at Nell with a grin. "Work? Good day with the flowers?"

"It is," she agreed. "I didn't think I'd like cold pizza, but it's not bad at all for a quick breakfast." Not that she'd eat it regularly, but on occasion it was all right.

"The flowers," she said with a smile. "I'm not sure what got into them today, but I thought I was going to have to break up a brawl with all the noise they were making, but they quieted down as soon as I came over."

"I could pretty much eat cold pizza all day," Gladio decided, while thoughtfully chewing on something that was decidedly not cold pizza, because, let's admit it, he could eat pretty much anything all day.

As long as it didn't interfere with working out. Cold pizza could also be eaten while reading, which was nice, but it was a little trickier to lift weights and eat most things.

"What do you think," he then asked, trying to open his mind up to the possibilities that might exist in the wide world of flower-related drama, "they were getting all worked up about?"

"It's hard to say. I might have been a bit distracted," she admitted with a smile. "I was hurrying about to get everything done early and, well, thinking about you."

"That's fair," said Gladio, his grin broadening, widening, tilting quite a bit as he sent it over to Nell. He leaned into the shamelessness as easily as he leaned in toward her with no small amount of smug preening. "I am pretty distracting."

She shoulder nudged him with a grin. "You are, yes," she said, "terribly distracting. It's a wonder I put up with you."

It might be a little more awkward to eat if she leaned into him a little, but she'd just have to manage.

Edited 2023-08-21 14:13 (UTC)

"Seems pretty clear to me."

And if the leaning made eating awkward for Nell, it was definitely adding a new challenge to Gladio's double-fisted approached, and so he was just going to have to make even quicker work of the sandwich in one hand so that it was now free not to then replace it with chicken, but to lean back on it a little to make all this leaning easier for everyone involved.

Sometimes sacrifices had to be made, Gladio. Sometimes they had to be made. Luckily there was a nice sturdy tree that Nell was also leaning against.

She watched him eat for a moment. "I swear I won't take it away from you," she said fondly. "The chicken will still be there after the sandwich."

"Maybe I just realized the benefit of having a free hand," Gladio said, and went ahead to provide more tangible evidence of this benefit by taking a moment to reach over and very gently brush his thumb against the corner of Nell's mouth, against her cheek, as if brushing away some stray crumbs or something like it, whether there were any there or not, and he grinned.

"Besides," he added, "around here, I wouldn't be surprised if a fried chicken did actually decide to get up and go scurrying away like it was nothing."

Nell turned her face into his touch and closed her eyes for a moment with a smile. "Might be a little worried if the picnic got up and took off on us," she admitted. " But I am seeing the benefits of having a free hand."

To demonstrate she gently reached up to brush a stray piece of hair off his face.

The looser ponytail was, clearly, starting to pay off, and if their dinner did decide to suddenly take off and abandon their picnic blanket, it would have a pretty good opening, since the only response to that Gladio had, really (besides maybe a prolonged moment of just grinning at Nell appreciatively), was to just bring that free hand right back to where it was against her cheek as he leaned in to kiss her.

Definitely no worries about eating too quickly with his mouth otherwise engaged, too.

Kissing was good too. Nell had no objection to a pause for kissing. She finally understood why people wrote about it so much. She closed her eyes and let her hand rest on his cheek as they kissed.

Picnic? Food? Potential for a sudden thunderstorm? Who cared about any of that when Gladio was kissing her.

Hell, even something like breathing beyond what the small gaps between long and languid kisses seemed of relatively minor concern, but when Gladio did eventually pull away, it wasn't very far, and he let out his breath contentedly, with a pleased little smirk on his face.

"This picnic," he decided, "was a pretty good idea."

Not that it had really been in doubt, of course, but credit where credit's due.

"It was, wasn't it," Nell said with, well for her it wasn't so much a smirk as contented, told you so sort of smile.

She handed him a piece of fried chicken and smiled up at him before returning her own food. "Very good idea. Quiet, out in nature, good food... acceptable company..."

"Acceptable?" asked Gladio, who was just about to thank her for handing him some chicken, but now he was going to have to reconsider, with such disparaging remarks flung his way. He looked at Nell with brows lifted, with an expression all but demanding that she explain herself, but instead of waiting, he just shook the chicken leg at her and shook his head.

"Sure you didn't mean ex-ceptional."

It was fine; the words were very close, clearly she just misspoke.

"'Cause that's definitely more what I was thinking," he added, throwing in a wink before taking a big, meat-tearing sort of bite out of that chicken.

Edited 2023-08-21 18:13 (UTC)

Nell couldn't help but laugh. "Hmmm, let me think now. Might have been more like excellent now that I think about it."

She couldn't help it. She did love to see him get all mock riled up.

Gladio squinted over at Nell with exaggerated skepticism as he chewed thoughtfully, as if deciding whether this attempted recovery would cut it, but then he nodded, clearly with approval and acceptance.

"That sounds more like it," he said, and really couldn't keep the serious act much longer than that, fading away into his own chuckle and another shake of his head. "We're pretty good at that."

"We are," she agreed cheerfully. "Never knew you could joke around with a man like that. But then you make everything fun."

The next shake of Gladio's head was far less amused, with just more of that mix of bewilderment, sadness, and anger that went along with being reminded of where Nell had come from, how she was raised, and the massive amount of things that seemed to need to be unpacked with even the smallest details, like them just joking around with each other. But he also wasn't about to let something like that cast a dark shadow on their otherwise great time, either. So he just looked at her thoughtfully for a moment before giving her a grin.

"Can I let you in," he asked, lowering both his voice and his head toward her to make things seem that much more confidential, "on a little secret?"

"Of course," she said curiously, leaning in a little closer. "Always."

"All this joking? All this having fun?" Gladio said, lifting a speculative eyebrow at Nell. "Totally selfish. I mostly only do it 'cause I like making you laugh."

Nell actually giggled at that. "I think that's the best thing ever. Please be as selfish as you like."

And she leaned in to kiss him again.

Not only a laugh, but a giggle, and then Nell was kissing him, and, really, could there have been any better response to his confession than that? Gladio kissed her back, though it wasn't long before he pulled back slightly, just enough to grin and murmur, low and rumbling, "Well, since you said please."

His next kiss was definitely selfish, leaning in with both hands cupping her face, because it turned out there were much better things for them to be holding than double sandwiches.

That was... Nell didn't even have words for how joyous an experience that was. It was everything she had loved about being kissed by Gladio and even more. Her body twisted to get even closer to him and when she finally pulled back from the kiss purely for the need to catch her breath, all she could say was, "Wow..." as she tucked her head into the crook of his neck.

"Yeah?" asked Gladio, and with her head nestled there, she couldn't see the grin on his face that just wouldn't quit, but she could probably hear it even in just that one word. He tilted his head toward her. "Good wow?"

"Mmmhmmm..."

Nell sighed contentedly and he could probably feel her smile against his neck. "I love that I can just feel your voice rumble through me when I'm close to you like this."

And she knew that there was even more and for the first time believed that it would only get better. She wasn't ready for too much of the 'more' yet, but she was loving every moment of the now.

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A Nice Shaded Clearing in the Preserve; Late Monday Afternoon [08/21].

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